Focusing on the human relationship with plants, the author of Second nature uses botany to explore four basic human desires, sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control, through portraits of four plants that embody them, the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato. Every school child learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers; the bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers' genes far...

Presents a variety of facts about apples, including how they grow, crossbreeding and grafting techniques, harvesting practices, and the uses, varieties, and history of this popular fruit.

While on a school field trip to an orchard to make cider, a young immigrant named Farah gains self-confidence when the green apple she picks perfectly complements the other students' red apples.

Describes the cultivation and uses of apples.

When Ms. Day's class takes a field trip to an apple orchard, Fluffy the guinea pig goes along, but will he ever get to eat his apple?

When Scooby-Doo and his friends go apple picking, the fruit disappears from Shaggy's basket, they hear strange noises in the growing darkness, and get pelted by apples.

When a doting father decides to make an apple pie for his beloved daughter, an enjoyable day is had by all, including the hungry farm animals who hover nearby in the hopes of getting a slice of the pie.